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Friday, December 5, 2014

Coal India plans 1 bn tonnes out put by 2020

STATE-owned miner Coal India (CIL) has been
given a gross output target of one billion tonnes of coal by 2019-20,
which is around double the current production, coal and power minister Piyush Goyal said on December 4.

"To produce 1,000 million tonnes
of coal, the expected growth is to come from identified future
projects," Goyal told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"The envisaged growth is possible
in brown-field as well as green-field areas and is expected to be
achieved through...

timely completion of new railway infrastructure
projects, faster environment clearances and improvement in the law
and order situation, apart from technology improvement in mining and
related infrastructure," he added.

Earlier, the minister had said the coal
target was not a fanciful one and a detailed plan had been prepared
to realize it.

With a modest production of 79 million
tonnes (MTs) at the year of its inception in 1975, the Maharatna PSU today is the
single largest coal producer in the world.

Operating through 81 mining areas CIL
is an apex body with seven wholly-owned coal producing subsidiaries
and one mine planning and consultancy company spread over eight
provincial states of India. CIL also fully owns a mining company in
Mozambique christened as 'Coal India Africana Limitada'.

Its target for the current financial
year has been set at 507 million tonnes.

In reply to another question, Goyal
said a range of options are available for private players for
investment in the power sector for generation of electricity that
include the Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (DBFOT) and
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models.

He said the Centre has notified
guidelines and model bidding documents in 2013-14 for procurement of
electricity by amending earlier guidelines notified in 2005 due to
inadequate treatment of fuel risks and termination provisions.

"For the DBFOT mode of power
procurement, the project assets are required to be handed over to the
utilities after successful completion of the concession period,"
the minister said.

"An option has also been given to
the developer to take project assets on lease basis up to 99 years on
successful completion of contract," he added.

For other modes of procurement, the
project assets continue to be owned by the developers after
completion of contract period.